Official November 2013 Shout-Out and Feedback Thread

[Miragel]

This event was INCREDIBLE! I am constantly floored by the staff, the NPCs and my fellow PCs. I come from a culture of intense RP with high stakes, and this boffer truly raises the bar. Thank you to everyone involved for continuing to build a beautiful game we can all be proud of. Now that I'm a little more awake (I'll post the pics soon) I wanted to take a moment to look back on some of my fave moments. I'd encourage you all to do the same! (Especially since FB buries our initial ERMERGERG I LUV LARP.... I should make a demotivational poster for this...)

As always, here's the shout out and feedback thread -

(I tried to go in order and failed, there's just too much stuff)
SEKRIT MEETINGS - Friday was all politics, all the time. Somehow it got to be 2am and I still had a full dance card to talk to people about things when my poor household was like "Jesus Jules, shut the hell up, we want to go to bed." To the other nobility, thank you for providing such a fun playground of politics. I can honestly say I've never had such much in the way of PC politics in a boffer. <3
TEAM TIATAR - Tiatar added another member through squireship. We welcome Rye - Ninja Bun Bun! (official title is a work in progress...). I was so happy to get to be a part of the first in game squireing for Tiatar. *hugs* Thank you Zack, we are so excited to have you on the team! As always thank you to my whole household who make Tiatar a blast.
ARCHERS - NOCK, AIM, FIRE! - The Baroness calling out the archers was actually due to the nobility meeting prior and seemed to work fairly well in terms of RP. You can believe the little Elven Baroness will be doing her best to step up next season. Thank you to Anaki and Thorgrim for being such badasses.
OH NO THE BARONESS IS DRUNK - SO I play a fairly serious character. It was organically developed at the Watson's Ferry game that apparently the Baroness is a wee bit of a lush. When a certain rougish fellow handed the Baroness a drink and she found herself without supervision she was more than happy to get her drink on. Props to Dame Katherine to brilliantly cutting her off. It's the subtleties of this sort of RP that I love about this crew. Also I'm fairly certain a newspapre may be smudging the good Baronesses reputation because of her drinking... oops.
SPEAKING GOBLIN - This was actually inspired by Steve the Goblin who was incredibly polite and well spoken. I was happy to see the NPCs respond so well to being thrown a curve ball.
THEY TOOK POCKETS? F***ING MURDER THEM ALL - Every good story needs that character that reminds everyone that they are human, to inspire courage and emotion in all peoples. Watching the whole town about loose their minds when pockets was kidnapped was pretty awesome to see.
NOBLES - The nobility meeting was a great deal of fun. I love that each Barony is so different. While they are all working towards the greater good adn the well being of the town, each Barony has it's own take and it's won attitudes. It really makes for a great environment and separated cultures. I really enjoy the RP from the nobles!
HIS EXCELLENCY, THE BARON OF RIVERVALE - Mac, I cannot tell you how much I loved the scenes we shared behind closed doors while the Baron expressed his thoughts. I love the conviction of your PC!
HIS EXCELLENCY, THE BARON OF WARCHESTER - Kevin, we need to do more of this. I loved chatting on the steps, I only regret that we were interrupted!
LOVE IS IN THE AIR - I was inspired by so many of the PCs actions this weekend that my character is now engaged.... (Summer IC Wedding anyone?)
ROFLCOPTER - (whose name I forget too often in character) I am so so proud to see the non-coms (Yes Wrath and Banks, I mean you) getting their moments int he sun as well on the battlefield. Wrath has done an exemplary job of being a badass on the battlefield with all the potions and the armor refits.
FOR ACARTHIA!! - As someone who is a "squishy" it's good to see how well people work on the battlefield together. The Sunday fight was a a good deal of fun. Thank you tot he NPCs who are tirelessly slaughtered by the PCs. We couldn't have all this fun w/o you! (I'm trying to bring you reinforcements for next season!)
SCOTLAND THE BRAVE - The squire of Bayenne (whose names ICly and OCly I forget) provided amazing music int eh tavern - thank you so so much! And also thank you for taking my request which came right as my PC was getting drunk. I wanted to run around and dance but I'm fairly certain my Knights would have dragged me out of the tavern. Thank you for the awesome RP as well as the amazing music!
THE SCOUTS - I'm always so impressed with you guys. You run around, bounce through the woods, and as far as I'm concerned might as well parkour around the camp, who knows. Either way, thank you for running around like damned ninjas. I enjoyed getting to finally RP with many of you!
WELCOME GREGORY (AND THEN SOME) - TIatar is growing We have a large number of folks who have not made it out yet to the games, and I'm looking forward to next season

I know I'm missing people and events, but there was just so much this weekend that was memorable, fun, and epic! Can't wait for the next event!

The Feedback portion -
I need to read the rules book apparently.
I'd like to get the laws of the land posted in character in the tavern

Expect "missives" from me in the coming weeks plot folk!

I'll get on those pictures now...
-Jules

 

[Traceroo]

I like to set goals for myself before every weekend. This weekend, I wanted to spend more time with a particular few PCs (some of those goals achieved, some completely missed by a mile!) -- and I had decided that I wanted to go on more modules. At the first two events, it seemed to me as if daylight time were geared toward continuous module runs, and I was missing out on pretty much the bulk of game activity by not getting involved in those adventures. So I set out this weekend firmly intended to go on all the modules ever!...

...and then spent my weekend pretty much in one continous series of seekrit meetings among PCs, punctuated by the occassional field battle. Didn't go on a single module (that was not one of the town-wide encounters) -- and I was busy every single waking moment, and loved every second of it!!

SEEKRIT MEETINGS - Loved all my seekrit meetings with all the PCs! Was especially pleased (and entirely unsurprised) by some great private roleplay with Mac. We've secretly peppered Rivervale with a bunch of Star Trek references because that's how these geeks roll. I loved getting to recycle Guinan's speech to Riker from TNG's "Best of Both Worlds" about letting Borg-Picard go in reference to undead Baron Pike. The depth of immersion in character, the complex emotional roleplay... the setting of the tavern broom closet... was just a delight! LOVE YOU, MAC, SO MANY BUNCHES! Getting to attend my first Tiatarin Seekrit-Seekrit Meeting (TM) was another delight with the involved participants. Continuing the love for my IG neighbors -- I loved Kat & Eldred's seekrit meeting following the alternate universe guy's bombshell... and just watching Ray's roleplay literally from a distance thereafter, and speculating as to the content of Eldred & Kathryn's seekrit meeting of their own thereafter. Getting to roleplay with such masters of subtlety and body language is such a treat for me, and Alliance has many of them!

SEEKRIT MEETINGS IN THE TAVERN - Much as I love having seekrit meetings in the broom closet, honestly, I think it's a terrible policy to leave the kitchen available for roleplay at all. I think we should nip this in the bud, and starting from the very next event, mark that area either as entirely OOG, or put a Ward on it. It's no doubt annoying to the - utterly kind, polite, and generous - kitchen staff to have PCs roleplaying when and where they're trying to work. Also significant is the fact that the kitchen is inherently a non-combat area. Roleplaying in the kitchen is effectively removing the threat of combat from the scene, and my Lawful Neutral brain just rejects that as inherently unfair; I think we broom closet roleplayers are taking advantage of a flaw in the system. Let's eliminate that.

TAVERN ATMOSPHERE - That being said, since the tavern is so central to our game's culture, I'd love to see better atmosphere there next year: Christmas lights and battery-powered votives instead of those mood-killing overhead lights. I'd like to see the tables spread out more individually rather than in big long rows. I wonder if we have the appropriate ladders, related supplies, and force of will to maybe hang some curtains or something in the corners so that we can create some private seekrit meeting space in the active tavern area? That's the sort of environment I'd really love.

QUALITY OF ROLEPLAY - Whether in seekrit meetings or publicly, the quality of roleplay just increases every single event in this game! I was so impressed with the level of detail of characterization from so many PCs this weekend. The level of depth of knowledge of character history creation and knowledge, IG cultural details from offstage areas, and the subtlties not only of speech, but facial expressions and body language from pretty much everyone just delights me endlessly! Great job, every single player on site, way to keep raising the bar here!

FIGHTS - I loved the setup for most of the town modules this weekend. The placement of the NPCs was overall excellent. The IG setups & story were clear to me from Marshall descriptions, and interesting in roleplay. The single exception was the "Revenge Against Those Effing Orcs Who Kidnapped Our Beloved Pockets" encounter. I liked getting to use that new site, good locale! The specific timing right at dusk made it a particularly dangerous fight OOG which seemed exacerbated by door fights, pitch black dark cabins, and a few odd staging choices. I think that was just bad luck on timing, and perhaps the specific ineraction with sunset, and its consequent dangers, was not anticipated.

I want to say how much I really admire Jesse for his announcement at Closing Ceremonies about his initial call about the force of weapon strikes, and then going back to the rulebook version of blocking 50% of the force. I very much appreciate Jesse's candor and honesty about confusion over rules as a long-time player. Jesse, you really climbed the Respect-o-Meter with how you handled that, and I thought your notes there were very gentlemanly. Props there!

I had a few safety concerns about NPCs during some fights which I will address in better detail in private commentary. I certainly believe that with far more PCs than NPCs, there were likely some problems of charging and overzealousness on the parts of PCs, and I appreciated and took to heart the general warnings against such. At the same time, I look forward to Dani & David's continued safety briefings for NPCs as I saw some repeated problems with both charging, and calls against PC charging which were less courteously handled than I think anyone would prefer. Believe me, as a veteran LARPer, I understand how the heat of the moment can make any of us less than perfectly graceful! There were just a few isolated incidents this weekend that made me say, "Whoa, not so cool." -- Though, to be clear, there were just as many moments of, "You're doing it right!" with players courteously backing off after a minor injury, accident, or rules question, that made me happier for those occasions than even if they hadn't happened because everyone involved was so cool about it (David, always looking at you with this sort of compliment!).

"ALL THE NOBLE PLOT" - There was a lot of IG conflict this weekend surrounding perceptions of discomfort between the noble and commoner PCs. Overall, I enjoyed the roleplay on this richly as a player so long as I felt the issues were entirely in-character. That makes for interesting PC conflict, which I enjoy. At the end of the event, however, I received some commentary through the grapevine which I found unsettling as a player. Now, I acknowledge that the grapevine may be full of it, and this could have been distorted through communication. I address this publicly in case any part is accurate from its alleged origin, however. It's been brought to my attention that there's growing unhappiness among players of commoner characters about "all the noble plot." In particular, I heard some complaints about the mere existence of Chivalry School - that it takes too long, that too many NPCs attend, and that there aren't enough modules running at 10:00 am on Saturday morning, noteably allegedly "prime time" for that sort of thing in the alleged opinions, I'm guessing, and some general complaints about it being among "all the noble plot" that gets run. I just wanted to clarify for anyone who was unaware that Chivalry School is an entirely PC-driven activity. My character, Dame Katherine, is a PC. I run this entirely on my own. I pick the topics, my amazing husband Ian makes those beautiful posters for me, I run the lessons only with help from other PCs in terms of the content. I wake up at 7:30 every Saturday morning during events to breakfast and get ready in time to run it. I hope that it's fun for the players who choose to involve themselves. I try to make it interactive, and I hope this is a resource which builds the game atmosphere, lending to further roleplay for everyone involved. It's not everyone's cup of tea, and it doesn't have to be. I just want to make sure that people know that I'm a PC, I volunteer for this, and it's not a Plot-driven encounter at all.

On the larger topic of "all the noble plot," I understand very well that in a game with this structure, the nature of an IG feudal system is that it's intended to create the illusion of a divide between the "haves" and "have nots" culturally. At the same time, that has to balance with creating fair opportunities for all players. Players see the noble characters in our seekrit meetings, and seemingly very busy, and I think it's easy to assume that there are plot opportunities for the nobles which don't exist for others. I'm here to tell you that if that's so, I haven't experienced it personally. This past Sunday's exclusive meeting only of nobles & squires has been - literally - the singular moment of "noble plot" I've experienced which wasn't just regular old plot which noble characters happened to be interested in. If there is such a thing as "noble plot," this noble PC hasn't experienced it yet. These are just PCs having seekrit meetings which any PC of any description can do. Now, there are lots of in-character conflicts over this issue, and as I said above, I welcome those. If anyone feels that there's a real divide here OOG and that players of commoners are getting left out expressly and feel they cannot break into plots over this, please feel free to reach out to me privately to put our heads together about how we can address this. That would be sucky if it were true, and I hope it is, if anything, only perception that the grass is always greener somewhere else.

UNDEAD BARON RIVERVALE - The roleplay around this was amazing in every possible moment. Saturday night's full moon reflecting on the snowfall made Rivervale's walk down the trail back to our cabin, ultimately to be ambushed by the Undead Baron and all his undead minions, just eerie in its beauty and incredibly memorable. I tell you that Dame Katherine will never in her life look on a light snowfall like that the same way, without remembering that night. All of the NPCs, who had probably been out there in the cold and snow for awhile I'm guessing, were FANTASTIC! On the ball with detailed roleplay in their coordination and tactics, even those without IG speaking priveleges, again - the subtlety of roleplay was great from Jesse's character in particular. And then there's Mike as Baron Nathaniel... which I covered privately in both an in-person conversation which began with a hug, and the words, "On behalf of the Barony of Rivervale, F#@% you!" and about six paragraphs in email. Mike is wonderful! He put so much preparation into this role before the event, learning all our character histories and about this imaginary but allegedly much beloved former leader whom we'd never actually met in game. Mike managed to first make the character real for us as the living Baron, giving him a face and a personality and an idea of what it was like being on that character's team... so it'd be so much more poignant when Mike then twisted that into its worst shadowy corruption, and drove that into our character's hearts and twisted! And that doesn't even touch on how much work he did to prep the costume and make-up, and work with Jesse on the whole story and its many pieces. I hear that all the NPCs also got into character at Monster Camp with discussion of tactics and roleplay for the group. Every single person involved -- including, oh yeah! The amazing town of New Acarthia that literally ran to Rivervale's aid, wouldn't take no for an answer about getting off our porch, and sat in the cold and the snow just to comfort our characters later. Wow. So impressed with the roleplay, so impressed in-character! My team can't shut up about how amazing this was for us. We loved every single minute, and the depth, flavor, and character of some serious psychological horror roleplay. A-MAZING!!

And before I sign off here...

TO JESSE: You've built a supportive, creative, friendly community out of the air here. Thank you for everything you've done in the past year to put this together. I've been playing this style of boffer LARP since 1992. I've never had the pleasure to see a start-up game with a better sense of comaraderie and support OOG, and such a high level of detailed characterization within the game. Culture like this flows from the top. You were very clear with all your starting players about the game you wanted to build, the atmosphere you wished to support. With cautious optimism, we signed on -- and this game is amazing. I've already made some friends here who were strangers to me last June, and now are among my besties in real life, and part of my social hivemind. I can't understand how my life previously seemed complete without these great people around me?? If we never ran another event, I'd walk away from Alliance Denver now with a sense of community and friendship and creative fulfillment that is exactly what I was looking for in life. Thank you so much for the gift of this community, and your amazing game... but don't take me up on that "If we never ran another event" part, I beg of you!!

Hat's off to you, Jesse -- the awe and respect with which your friends and players from Back East speak of you is entirely well-deserved. NOW I get what they've all been saying.

Thanks everyone, and much love!

Trace Moriarty

 

[Kakita Jules]

Favorite moments/Props for the weekend

Introducing Pansy Weaver to all the pcs in the tavern & out of game helping me relearn their names, and unleashing the Angora sales pitch on the Baroness of Tiatar.

Convincing Skarsgar(?) Oathbreaker to reclaim his Dwarven honor over breakfast I really love playing up the dwarven culture in moments like that.

The crazy old guy who kept calling me Giles and just rolling with his insane stories of yesteryear especially the "tainty nutty" taste of liche phylactery chicken noodle soup.

The Archery line led by master archer commander Baroness Kathryn of Tiatar!

Anaki for being the 1st and hopefully not last to join the Rangers Corps of Acarthia!

The wibbley Kobold slave that made this dwarf realize hes getting soft in his old age (I'm a big softy what can I say)

Swearing by my beard that no harm would come to squire Brom while he was nauseated by the ghasts at the end of the undead fight and knowing full well Pockets would shave me bald if anything happened to him!

the mass melee at the end of Sunday and getting to stomp Orcs all weekend!

 

[Firefairy]

Favorite moments/Props for the weekend

Introducing Pansy Weaver to all the pcs in the tavern & out of game helping me relearn their names, and unleashing the Angora sales pitch on the Baroness of Tiatar.

LOL I am glad you liked her- If Jesse approves her as an ongoing character, I will probably spring for a proper mask so that she can take you up on the braiding suggestion, which was awesome. Some of the facial expressions as she was explaining her wares were absolutely priceless. :-J

Very glad I helped with remembering names, as well. Always good to help get people over that "crud, I don't remember the name of the person I want to speak to" hump.

I'm kind of in a blur about the weekend, having dumped straight into massive work when I got home, but I loved the PC reactions to the "Red Knight" and Pansy, and the acting of Lily and Billy was great- props to Jack and Mara (?- sorry, I'm bad with names, too) for their dead-on reactions as their idol (and meal ticket) was stripped of her assumed position. Also thanks to Mara for providing me a polite way to politely get out of a conversation with the Baroness when we were needed for the next chunk of plot!

Thanks so much to everyone who helped with repacking NPC gear! Steve and I spent a day organizing and cataloging everything, and it was lovely not having that all undone as soon as there was a game. You guys did a great job, and it went so fast because of all the hands!

Also, props to Rich for single-handedly taking out three Orcs when he was startled by them as he tried to enter the Tavern. Man, you are _deadly_ with those spackets! Will definitely be applying some of the tips you gave me for future caster NPCs. At least my bad aim was good for comic effect, as when I hit one of my own goblin allies dead in the back with a Cause Severe Wounds.

 

[Jesse Grabowski]

So... as many of you know... I moved into a new house... am painting, unpacking, and getting things back to order... so nice to hop on the forums and see all of the kind words... thank you from the bottom of my heart. It makes me feel all tingly inside to know that our little game has brought forth amazing friendships, for that is why we form communities... not for loots or XP, but to spend quality time with like-minded people and hobbysists. I am looking forward to slowly getting back into things... writing the remaining race packets, attending more cons and faires, spreading word through advertising in more game and hobby stores, and building up plots for 2014.... which will be even more epic!
-Jesse